Carla Geneve tops the Amrap Metro Chart with ‘2001’

Community radio shows a huge amount of support for Australian music, with almost 40% of music played coming from local artists. Taste-making presenters excel at giving airtime to an incredible spread of what Aussie artists have to offer. The Amrap Metro and Amrap Regional Charts provide insight into what’s getting airplay and attention on community radio each week. Here’s the lowdown on some tunes charting this week.

‘Close To You’ is a crisp and vibrant return to form from producer Alice Ivy and comes to fruition superbly with some international help from rising pop songstress, Flint Eastwood. Their creative collaboration began at last year’s SXSW when the pair met and the foundation for the track was laid out in a Texas studio, and completed in all its bubbly glory at Flint Eastwood’s church-turned-studio in Detroit. Eastwood dominates the track with her powerful vocals, musing on a romance in-the-making while weaving around Ivy’s stark synths and playful kalimba. The result is a bold, joyful splash of electronic pop, perfect for your next pool party. Radio Adelaide in SA, Brisbane’s 4ZZZ and Sydney’s FBi Radio are already all over it.

Struck by the same individual sense of fierceness as Janis Joplin and Lucinda Williams, Carla Geneve has been burning a hole in the West Australian music scene for some time now with her searing and unashamed blues-rock pierced with a haunting vocal tenor and gnarly mindset. The emotionally raw ‘2001’ perfectly captures the existential fug of being crushingly alone and not seeing – or caring to find – a way out. Geneve was one of the true sensations of last year’s BIGSOUND, and now she’s signed with heavy hitters Remote Control on their Dot Dash label, her stark songwriting ability seems set surge towards greater exposure this year. Geneve is already at the top of the Amrap Metro Charts though, with stations such as Perth’s 6RTR FM Brisbane’s 4ZZZ FM and Sydney’s FBi Radio well onto 2001.

The prolific Brian Cadd returns from the crossroads of Nashville to bring a slice of Americana to Aussie shores. ‘Slow Walk’ and ‘Eye of A Hurricane’ sit back to back on the Amrap regional chart this week and act as the perfect showcase of Cadd’s authentic sound. Bubbling with tough blues, the tracks are effortlessly inspired by sounds from the deep South. With a little help from big names in the game like Dan Dugmore on guitar and Mark Moffatt in the studio, Cadd’s new album ‘Silver City’ is expertly tailored despite being his first real venture into the Americana. This is one of those albums perfect for both the open road and an imaginary saloon bar – Cadd might be pulling back on the country sounds on this one but he’s lost none of his flair. Fraser Coast Community Radio in QLD, Radio MAMA in WA and 2BACR in NSW can’t get enough of ‘Silver City’ and ‘Slow Walk’.

Wily and affecting – not to mention wholly underrated – Melbourne’s Jess Cornelius has quietly crafted three arch pop albums using the Teeth & Tongue moniker but is now getting more personal under her own name. ‘No Difference’ is sweetly echoing dream-pop reflecting on the daily rituals we take part in to maintain a sense of esteem, shattering the illusions they contain to reveal the falsehood of it all. While the song itself is a search for authenticity, Cornelius has gone on a search for greener pastures, relocating to Los Angeles to bring her canny style to the North American masses. We reckon she’s got a great shot at it, and community radio must too, with ‘No Difference’ getting loads of love at Radio Adelaide, Edge Radio in Hobart and PBS FM in Melbourne.

Just when you think Ariel Pink has returned with one of his warped, lo-fi melodic pop gems, Queensland’s Clea’s latest single ‘Right Way’ pulsates past its understated intro and springs into a velvety pop tune with a magnetic pull that hits a dance-friendly realm. Taken from her late 2018 debut full-length ‘Vermillion’, Clea has kept momentum up on the album after the haze of Christmas playing shows with Holy Holy and Alex the Astronaut, and returning in the new year with ‘Right Way’. It’s a booming track, and BBB FM and Yass FM in NSW as well as 5GTR in South Australia.